The studio flat of the future?

City centre living often means space is at a premium and sometimes it can be difficult to make the most of what little room you have in a studio apartment.

An exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York is showing how it is possible to live comfortably in a tiny 325sq-ft flat.

Making Room: New Models for Housing New Yorkers runs until September 2 and features designs that were submitted to a small-apartment competition announced by Mayor Michael Bloomberg last year.

Challie Stillman and Lina Franco, who usually live in a 650sq-ft home in Brooklyn, stayed in the apartment for 24 hours. The Murphy bedroom?? includes a couch that slides under when the bed is out of the wall.

A chair also converts to a stepladder for reaching storage spaces.

“Everyone had a place to sit, had a place to eat, and it worked out perfectly,” said Ms Stillman, who admitted that it would be possible for two people to live in the apartment for real.

“You'd have to edit your belongings, definitely... And also, you have to be neat. Everything has to have its place, and if it's not in its place, and it's messy in here, you're going to start to get agitated.”